One gay Boy Scout's 'brutal day'

Even in this day and age of increasing tolerance toward homosexuals, what’s braver than having high school classmates know that you’re gay?

But school and scouts were different.

After Zaida collected 1,000 pounds of food and $200 for a food drive during his senior year of high school, a thought crossed his mind about what he might do at his Eagle Scout awards ceremony: He would come out to the crowd because he was so angry about having to stay closeted.

He broached the idea with his parents, who had been so supportive of him. This time, he heeded the parental advice.

“I really turned into this sort of rebellious youth for a moment, I guess,” Zaida said with a laugh. “I was planning on just giving a speech and thanking everyone for helping me get to Eagle Scout, earn the rank, get to all of this, and then I was going to go, ‘And I’ve done all this stuff, but all that time I’ve been gay and that didn’t alter anything about my scouting career and it shouldn’t for anybody.’

“My parents knocked it down for being a bit too controversial.”

These days, Zaida is beginning to wear activism like a badge. Yet he still carries his Eagle Scout card in his wallet. It’s a source of pride and a thing he can appreciate without considering the politics of exclusion.

Scouting “made me a more mature person,” he said. “It also taught me these outdoor skills, camping and knot-tying, that have proved really useful in everyday life in situations you wouldn’t necessarily imagine.”

Zaida believes it will get easier for the gay Scouts who come after him, and he’s optimistic this will happen sooner than he thought possible — even if it’s incremental.

“I’m fine with any baby steps that are taken,” he told me. “And if the national policy is to decide to let local councils make the decision themselves, that’s still a positive change that I’m happy for.”